The Christmas season is upon us. As I speak Doug is roasting his 4th or 5th turkey for an event that he caters each year at this time. Our first Christmas of 2018 was in November celebrating with Doug’s co-workers at Petals West. He loves the hustle and bustle of his work and is already sourcing roses for Valentine’s Day!

My second Christmas was with my precious sisters earlier this week. We celebrated early because Kimberley and Michael are leaving soon for a six week visit in Australia to visit Danielle, Dylan and Dylan’s family. Our third Christmas will be Monday evening with the dinner that Doug is preparing for. At the end of the evening we light white tapers and sing Silent Night with the dinner guests.

We started the new year of 2018 in a flurry, taking down the Christmas tree on Boxing Day because we flew to Mesa, Arizona a day later. I went with Jer, Jen and the girls, Bekah and Seb and Grandma Jean. Doug and Kate arrived on the weekend.

Doug found us a great condo where a Christmas tree was still up when we arrived. The occasion was the wedding of Doug’s nephew Justin.  All the Grisims were together for a rehearsal dinner on Friday Dec 28th and then the beautiful wedding the following day. The venue reminded me of a Tuscan villa and not surprisingly the food was fabulous. The next evening Doug, his Mom and siblings with a couple of nephews and nieces thrown in for good measure celebrated New Year’s Eve together, an event that has not occurred in a very long time.

I arrived back home in enough time to throw a load of laundry in the washing machine and repack my suitcase because Doug and I were off to Portugal with good friends. Unfortunately the good friends did not make the trip due to unforeseen circumstances. In spite of missing them and feeling sheepish about it all, Doug and I had a wonderful time staying right on a beach in the Algarve.

We took an overnight trip to Seville, Spain but otherwise stayed along the southern coast.

The weather wasn’t tropical but it was pleasant and I am happy whenever I can walk along a beach.

We celebrated Doug’s birthday in late January and then Sebastian’s and Josie’s second birthday in February. Bekah’s May date came next with Jen and I following close behind. July brought Kate’s celebration as well as Isabelle’s, who turned five. Jeremy takes up the rear with a September birth date.

In May there will be another milestone to celebrate as Jer and Jen are rounding off their beautiful family with another baby at that time. We never tire of our role as grandparents. We adore the Wee Ones and find joy again in every little thing when we are with them.

Late February and early March was our annual sojurn to Isla Mujeres.

Along with lots of family and good friends we reconnect with each year, long-time friends Melinda and Richard spent most of a week with us and it was a special time.

When our traveling days were curtailed for the early spring, we focused on another wonderful blessing to our family. Doug and I drove back and forth to the lake meeting with a cottage renovator and hauling bead board and flooring in the back of Doug’s truck. By May long weekend we were able to set beds up and even though it is not yet finished, we felt luxurious with all the space and rooms and beds for everyone! I was also able to ask some girlfriends out for the occasional weekend.

We attended four wonderful weddings in the summer-two of them in the same family!

The first three were young members at our church and the fourth was that of our nephew Bronson.

Since I had been so sick the summer before, Doug gifted me with a summer do-over and I spent a couple of weeks all by myself out at Lester Beach. I cannot adequately express, how drawn I am to our special piece of heaven.

In August Kate and Doug flew to Toronto so that they could attend the Rogers Cup together. Kate’s fav tennis player didn’t make the finals but Doug’s Nadal did.

Come September, we had the traveling bug again and taking advantage of cheap flights out east, we visited Charlottetown PEI for our first time. Both the hospitality of a friend we met on Isla and the quaintness of the island ensures that we will visit again in the future.

Another trip to Toronto for the Food Bloggers Canada conference and extended stay with Richard and Melinda rounded out the fall. Thanksgiving was once again at the beautiful lake home of Kim and Michael.

The first weekend of November Bekah, Seb, Doug and I took a road trip to Minneapolis. Doug found us an Air BnB in a neighbourhood we loved and we explored many of the breweries and restaurants. Doug’s brother Jim and fam met us for breakfast and then Jim met us again that evening at Surly, a favourite Minneapolis Brewery. Bekah and I went to a Idina Menzel and Josh Groban concert and Doug and I took in a Vikings game. We not only had “nose bleed” seats, we were in the very top section in the very last row! Since then, it seems like Christmas preparations began soon after, which brings me full circle.

Going backwards for a moment, Kate graduated with her Masters Degree this spring and we used it as an excuse for a family party. Little Brown Jug where both Bekah and Jeremy are employed allowed us to throw the party there and it was a wonderful celebration.

Jeremy is head brewer at LBJ and acknowledges the blessing of being employed in a career which he loves. Wife Jen has launched her own business and is a certified pre- and post-natal fitness instructor. In some classes the participants carry their babies in a front carrier, soon Jen will look just like them! They love their little house in Wolseley where Belle’s school is a short walk away and the park where I used to take the kids when they were toddlers is just down their street. Isabelle is a beautiful, sensitive and kind wee one who adores her little sister. Josie is a character who loves to tell long animated stories and always goes for the big laugh just like her Daddy.

Bekah too loves her work as the General Manager of Little Brown Jug. Having gone to school for International Development Studies, she is surprised that she loves business the way she does. Sebastian’s workplace is in the same neighbourhood, he is on the front lines of Siloam Mission and has signed up for the Reserves! They too have a home in the west end and it is big enough for all of us and additional guests to stretch along one long table for this year’s Christmas dinner.

Kate is carefully considering her options for her career but is leaning towards a not-for-profit where she can serve the minority communities that she is so passionate about. The gang collects together at Life is Good (the name of our beach house) all summer and for Sunday suppers the rest of the year.

I am chugging along with my small business, always delighted when a new client approaches me. Each day holds a different set of tasks and I amazingly still absolutely love what I do.

Doug and I are still devoted to our neighbourhood church and we host a small group in our home, a couple of times a month. They too make up our family.

If you are reading this, you are important and loved by Doug and I and we can never adequately express the gratitude that we have for our many friends and enormous families. Peace and Christmas blessings to you all.

Kath’s quote: “God bless us everyone!“- Charles Dickens

Love never fails.

 

The wedding festivities that we traveled to Mesa, Arizona for, commenced the evening before the wedding at the rehearsal party. The location was the common space/party room of the couple’s condo development. The space was lovely with comfortable seating around a fireplace and plenty of serving space where an Italian dinner was set out for guests. There was also an enormous patio that became enclosed as the evening cooled off. It was the perfect occasion for D’s siblings to assemble and get caught up.

The wedding day venue was called Villa Sienna and was where both the ceremony and the reception were to take place. The outdoor courtyard was a gorgeous setting.

Here are the beautiful Grisim women waiting for the ceremony to begin: Daughter #1, J2  (of J1 and J2), Boo and the eldest Wee One. The Frenchman and my Bro-in Law with the cheesy smile make up the back ground.

The setting was so beautiful that we took next year’s Christmas card picture after the ceremony.

The courtyard was so romantic that the Wee Ones danced and swayed pretending that they were princesses I am sure.

We lingered in the outdoor space as the weather was so pleasant and a drastic extreme from the temperatures back home. When we joined everyone else in another reception room, we were treated to appetizers and libations.

The foodservice at the venue was top drawer. The kid’s table enjoyed mac and cheese, potato skins and chicken fingers.

We loved the short ribs, chicken breasts, beans almandine and butternut squash ravioli with pecans.

Dancing commenced right after dinner and the music was so good that almost everyone sprang to the dance floor at the same time. I had volunteered to go back to our house when the Wee Ones were tiring out, so I was pleased to have joined in on the festivities early on.

If you know of anyone looking for a wedding venue to the Mesa/Scottsdale area, I would highly recommend Villa Sienna.

Kath’s quote: “Once in awhile, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a fairy tale”.-Unknown

Love never fails.

 

 

 

Once we were given the keys to our home away from home we were thrilled with the space and all the thoughtful touches.

Since we left home on December 28th, I had spent the 27th packing up all of our Christmas things. I was really touched that the Air BnB owners had a Christmas tree that graced the living room.

The house was well stocked with movies that we enjoyed intermittently over the week. It was also equipped with puzzles and games and the Wee Ones had a great time perched at the kitchen table. There were air mattresses and inner tubes in the garage for the pool as well as other pool toys like Frisbees, footballs and squirt guns in a basket by the washer and dryer. The latter was on the second floor outside of the room that my mother-in-law slept in. She has to take a flight of stairs to do her laundry at home so she did it all before she left Phoenix.

Designating the sleeping space was a breeze: our youngest and her husband had a queen bed in a double room, my mother-in-law and my brother-in-law shared a room with twin beds. Our son and his wife and 2 kids had the Master Bedroom with a King bed so the kids could Mom and Dad if they needed too. They also had their own en suite which made mornings quieter.

Our eldest slept on the pull out in the living room (she also had use of the main floor powder room), leaving my husband and I with the last double room.

This one had bunk beds which was kind a fun!

Each bedroom had a theme and you can likely determine what ours was. There was a small balcony off of our room and an enormous walk in closet.

The kitchen, oh the kitchen! It was furbished with every single small appliance you could think of including a movie theatre style popcorn maker, George Foreman grill, crockpot and waffle maker! There were at least 12 place settings and even more cocktail and wine glasses. Every kitchen shelf was labelled so you always knew where things were put when you unloaded the dishwasher. The major appliances were brand new and the fridge was huge. We made good use of it and the pantry by stocking up on food and libations at a Winco up the street. This way the kids could have cereal in the mornings and snacks throughout the day. My brother-in-law got to make his smoothies and specialty omelettes. We took turns cooking for each other which was great fun and made good use of the barbeque right out the sliding doors.

But the best benefit of the house was the additional space it offered up. One evening all the cousins got together, ordered pizza and played foosball. A small group of us celebrated New Year’s Eve together and one evening we hosted my husband’s sister, our niece, our nephew, his new wife and relations we had not met before.

If you are a family looking for an economical way to travel together, an Air BnB house might well be the answer.

Kath’s quote: “Home is not a place…it’s a feeling.” Author unknown

Love never fails.

 

 

When we heard about the family wedding that was to be held in Phoenix just after Christmas, we were all very excited about making the trip. After all, the groom (D’s nephew) had come all the way to Winnipeg for two of our family weddings. The dilemma was, how would we all afford plane fares and hotel accommodations? There were 11 of us: D’s Mom and brother, our three and their spouses and two grandbabies. D did the research and an Air BnB was the perfect solution.

We took an early morning flight so that when we arrived at the condo complex, our house wasn’t quite ready for us. They allowed us to leave our luggage locked on the front patio and make use of their beautiful recreational space.

There were two swimming pools, one which was heated and the other which was not. Even though it was winter for the locals, we Winnipeggers found the weather and the heated pool quite lovely.

In addition to the two swimming pools, there was a splash pad and two hot tubs. The Wee Ones preferred the hot tub to the splash pad and later in the week, the eldest of the Wee Ones actually learned how to swim under the tutelage of her Daddy.

There was also an outdoor shower and full sets of washrooms right by the pool so we were covered off in that department too. Although we never had an opportunity to use them, there were barbeques in the common space as well as an outdoor fire pit.

The pool area was well used by our group but there was never anyone else there. This was a lovely opportunity for us to host other family members and even the bride and groom one afternoon.

The high end complex offered up indoor space as well. The guys were pleased with the gym machines and nearing the end of our stay I checked out the entertaining space that could reserved if you were a resident. There was also a movie theatre that we chatted about using but ran out of time.

But I digress. I am certain that you can understand that spending time around the pool while finishing touches went into our house for the week was no hardship in the least.

Kath’s quote: “Arizona is young and daring. She is not tied to precedent, to convention, to other states’ ways of doing things…. She is bent on making her own ways, and in her own way. Her mistakes will be her own, and her triumphs likewise”. ~George Wharton James

Love never fails.